Final Thoughts on Chicago Sports

Bears Free Agency Preview

What a difference a year makes?  A year ago this time, the Bears had no real needs.  Maybe some depth at Defensive Tackle and Safety.  Maybe a Tight End.  But other than that, the Bears were both good and deep at every position (or so we thought.)  The 2007 season was quite an eye-opener, wasn't it?

 As of this writing, the Bears needs are as follows:

• Quarterback
• Runningback
• Wide Receiver
• Offensive Line, both at Guard and Tackle
• Defensive Tackle
• Linebacker
• Safety

Really, the only positions the Bears are "set" at are TE, CB, DE, K, P, and KR.  Every other position either has no capable starter or no depth to speak of.  So with that in mind, lets look at the available free agents.

QB - Nobody worth talking about.  Brian Griese is about to become the best available Free Agent QB, as the Bears will release him if they can't find a taker in trade.  Unless you like Kelly Holcumb or Billy Volek, then this well is dry.  Teams just don't let good QBs hit free agency, for some reason.  So the Bears must find their third QB in the draft.  Speaking of QBs, I like the fact that Orton signed the exact same deal as Grossman.  Rex will probably still win the job, thanks to his supposedly amazing practice powers, but at least on the surface it appears that Kyle will get a fair shake this preseason.

RB - Marion Barber might become available, and if so he'd be the cream of the crop.  I doubt Dallas will let him walk, though.  Beyond Barber, Michael "The Burner" Turner is available.  He's been a tremendous backup for LDT in San Diego, after a stellar career at NIU, but I suspect he'll demand a contract outside of the Bears range.  There's a couple more "OK" guys available, like Derrick Ward, Jesse Chatman, and Chris Brown, and I suspect the Bears will end up with one of them.  I like Ward.  I think he could fill the Thomas Jones role and motivate Benson nicely.

WR - Randy Moss is the best guy available (if New England hasn't already secretly signed him), but he's a bad fit for Chicago.  We already know what he'll do on a team with a poor QB situation, thanks to his time in Oakland.  Bernard Berrian is probably the next best guy available.  I'm all for signing Bernard, as he knows the system and the prospects of going into 2008 with two new starting wideouts concerns me.  After Berrian, you've got Jerry Porter, DJ Hackett, and Devery Henderson.  There are no "number ones" on the market (aside from Moss.)  So, as Perry predicts, the Bears will sign the likes of Brandon Llyod or Justin McCareins.  Neither exactly inspires confidence (though Lloyd might have a shred of upside.)

OL - Alan Faneca is head and shoulders better than everyone else, and should be the Bears number one target this offseason.  He could potentially do for the Bears what Steve Hutchinson did for the Vikings.  He's that good.  The Bears should just hand him a blank contract and let him fill in the numbers.  After Faneca, Flozell Adams has gotten a lot of love from the media.  I'm not so sure, though.  Every time I watch the Cowboys, Romo was running for his life.  Only his sheer athleticism kept him from being sacked 60 times.  (He'd still be better than Fred Miller, though.)

DT - The best guys available were already franchised by their respective teams, so the Bears will likely end up picking up some second-tier "rotation guys" like Antonio Garay.  Whatever.

LB - Shocker of shockers, Lance Briggs is the best guy available.  Wonder what the Bears would have to do to get a guy like that?  After Briggs, there's a bunch of Hillenmeyer types not really worth talking about.  Competent, at best.

S - Again, not a lot here.  The Bears might have to swing another trade, like they did last year.  Hope this one works out better.

With the slim pickins on defense in the free agency market, it's clear that Angelo will have to focus on upgrading the defense in the upcoming draft.  There just aren't any impact players available in free agency.  SO....

Realistically, the Bears could sign Faneca, Berrian, Ward and a second-tier receiver on offense; then spend high draft picks on a DT and OT, before spending "day two" picks on a Safety, QB, and LB.  Angelo has had decent luck in the later rounds on defense, so we'll just have to cross our fingers that he continues with that magic touch.  He sure as shit can't draft offense.  Then maybe we'll get lucky with a franchise QB in the 6th round.  The Bears are due a lucky break at QB, no?

Bears Doomed, er, I mean - Bears Sign Grossman

I don't understand all the gloom and doom on the Grossman extension.  Was Rex my first choice for starting QB next season?  No.  But I think it's a successful step one in a four-step plan.

1. Sign Grossman on the cheap.  They did, one year, 3 million.  Only 1.5 million guaranteed.  That's third string QB money, folks.  Nothing to worry about.
2. Cut Brian Griese.
3. Let Kyle Orton compete for the starting job in 2008.
4. Draft a QB for the future.

A lot of people are convinced that Grossman will never amount to nothing.  They point to his happy feet and reckless handling of the football.  The point to the botched Super Bowl, where even a hint of competence might have won a championship.  They may be right, but I still think he should be in the mix for one more chance.  He's not some David Carr reject that's had eighty games with nary a hint of long-term value.  Rex has started 30 games, he's thrown 24 TDs in a season, and he was a solid starting QB on a team that went to the Super Bowl.  That's a lot more than any of the last thirty QBs for the Bears can say, and a resume a lot of guys would be proud of.  Sure, he's mind-boggling awful at times, but what if he grows out of it?  Isn't he worth at least one more look?  I just want him to compete with and/or back up Kyle Orton for one season.  Is that so wrong?

Note that I'm doing everything in my power to avoid all comparisons to Eli Manning.  It's Angelo's crutch for the signing, I'm sure.  Look at how the Giants patience was rewarded this year!  Yeah, yeah.  I get it.  But I'm not drinking the Kool Aid. 

So long as Orton gets a fair shake in the preseason, this is a good deal.  Brian Griese is not the answer, and Rex still has a shred of upside.  Some people want to gut the farm and bring in three unknowns.  There are no free agent QBs worth a nickel, so you'd have to do it through the draft.  That's fine if you want to concede all championship talk in February, but you need a bit of stability under center to win a title.  Rookies, with rare exception, never do.  I'd still draft a QB, but I wouldn't ask him to do anything till 2009 at the earliest.

And that's how you go into the season with three guys with upside and not concede a championship before the season starts.  Decent, low-risk gamble.

Bulls Dump Big Ben

Ben, you're always running here and there
You feel you're not wanted anywhere
If you ever look behind
And don't like what you find
There's one thing you should know
You've got a place to go
(you've got a place to go)
- Michael Jackson, Ben

Yeah.  Cleveland. 

The Bulls dumped Ben Wallace's horrible contract today as part of a 11-player trade that occurred right at the NBA trade deadline.  The Bulls didn't really get better today, but they did get a little lighter.  They also included the punk Adrian Griffin and respectable veteran Joe Smith in the deal that netted the team Drew Gooden, Larry Hughes, and a pair of young players I know practically nothing about.  Cedric Simmons and Shannon Brown.  I can tell you one thing about them, though, right now.  They're my new favorite players, because practically everyone else on this team disgusts me. 

But let's get back to Ben for a minute.  The Ben Wallace era in Chicago can be considered nothing but an abject failure.  What did his signing bring to the club?  Maybe one playoff series?  Would they have not beaten the Heat last spring with Tyson Chandler?  I was a fan of the Wallace signing back in 2006 simply because he was a well-refined and significantly better version of Chandler.  Chandler had just come off a mediocre season and horrendous one-and-done playoff series, and what better way to upgrade the team than to sign the rich man's Tyson Chandler with some Defensive Player of the Year awards on his mantle and a championship ring on his finger.  The move would weaken our biggest rival, to boot.  The move did anything but.  Here's what I'll remember most about Ben's time in Chicago:

• The headband war
• Getting Skiles fired, along with Griffin
• Disinterested performance

Rumor has it that John Paxson didn't even want to sign Ben Wallace.  The word on the street is Jerry Reinsdorf forced Paxson to make the huge offer to Ben.  (And thus Paxson had no choice but to trade Chandler.)  I don't know if any of that's true or not, but it's not so far fetched.  So while I can blame Paxson for holding his chips too long and not being aggressive enough to acquire Kobe or Gasol, I can't unequivocally blame him for the lousy Wallace signing.  I think his hand might have been forced.

The good news is Cleveland is now on the books for the last $37 million or so of Ben's contract.  The bad news is the Bulls are now on the hook for the last $30 million or so of Larry Hughes' contract.  Hughes was sort of the "shooting guard version of Ben Wallace" in Cleveland.  A major disappointment.  Like Ben, though, he was pretty good in past years and maybe a change of scenery will be just what he needs.  If Hughes can somehow return to his previous form, he'd be just what the Bulls have needed.  A big guard who can both defend and score.  This might impact the development of Thabo Sefolosha somewhat, so we'll just have to keep an eye on how that plays out.  The funny thing is, I remember when the Bulls first tried to acquire Hughes, nine years ago in a deadline deal for Toni Kukoc.  If they had acquired the young Hughes instead of the bum John Starks, the entire Krause post-MJ era might have gone completely different.

The Bulls also picked up Drew Gooden.  He's a decent big man that can score in the post a little and rebound a little.  Not sure if he'll ever be one of the three best players on a title team, but like Andres Nocioni he's not a bad guy to have around. 

And that's about it.  Despite the mostly wretched year and a half here, I wish Ben good luck.  Maybe playing with LeBron in meaningful games will revive his career.  And maybe now a third team in the East can be considered a respectable foe for the West in the Finals.

Cubs sign Cintron, wake me when there's something to write about

The Cubs signed utility infielder Alex Cintron today, who spent the last few seasons with the White Sox.  I always thought he was a sort of useful player with the Diamondbacks, but any Sox fan will tell you that he was worthless on the South Side.  Whatever, he's competing with Ronny Cedeno for the role of last infielder on the bench, and he's both younger and better than Rey Ordonez and Enrique Wilson.  And you know Lou won't even think about playing him over Theriot or DeRosa.  Decent low-risk signing by Hendry.

Other than that, there's not a lot to talk about with the Cubs.  The Roberts deal still hasn't happened; because of that DeRosa still can't get comfortable; and Dempster thinks the Cubs are going all the way.  Yawn.  The only real battles this spring are for 4th and 5th starter, which I covered several weeks ago and exactly nada has changed since then; and starting Center Fielder.  Right now the job is Pie's to lose.  I wouldn't be surprised, though, to see the Cubs make another move this spring.  And if they do, there'll be something to write about.  Instead, I'll just have to speculate.

There's talk of the Cubs acquiring Coco Crisp from the Red Sox in exchange for Jason Marquis.  To that I ask, have the Red Sox not seen any videotape of Marquis the last few seasons?  I know they're desperate, but come on.  He's horrible, and I thought the Red Sox employed smart people like Bill James. Whatever, if the Cubs can get anything for Marquis, that'd be a major boon for Hendry.  Yes, Crisp's signing might stymie Pie a bit, but I almost don't care.  In a perfect world, the Cubs would acquire Crisp and Pie would start hitting again.  Then they'd have a young stud center fielder and a quality backup for all three outfield positions.  Knowing the Cubs, though, Pie will stink AND they'll fail to aquire a quality backup.  And we'll be dealing with a rotating sinkhole of Pie, Cedeno and Fuld in Center for three months. 

And that's that.  Till next time, and/or something significant happens.

Bears Release Moose; Extend Brown

I saw this headline on ESPN.com today, and my jaw just about hit the keyboard.  For some reason, I thought they were referring to Mike Brown.  Turns out it was Alex.  Alex's extension is no less surprising, but it's a lot more warranted. 

Alex Brown was benched this season in favor of Mark Anderson, and that was clearly a major mistake by the coaching staff.  It seemed like a good move at the time, with Anderson collecting 12 sacks in part-time play in '06, but put into action it was not so hot.  Anderson simply could not stop the run for crap.  He's still an excellent pass-rusher, but he's more of a Simeon Rice type.  Effective on passing downs only.  When Brown was put back into the starting lineup for the last three games, there's no question that the defense was more effective.  And with this signing only being a two-year extension, it shouldn't break the bank.

As for Moose, I can't say I didn't see this one coming.  The Bears will end up releasing Moose with two years left on his five-year deal.  Some people would look at the raw numbers and call this signing a mistake.  Not me.  As mediocre as Moose was these last few years, he was a tremendous step up for the team when the Bears signed him in 2005.  He instantly gave the receiving corps legitimacy, when they had absolutely none.  (Let's put it this way, Bobby Wade and David Terrell were the leading receivers in 2004.)  He was a professional receiver, and the other "receivers" on that '05 roster were Justin Gage and Bobby Wade.  Bums through and through.  Moose put a rookie Kyle freaking Orton on his back and led an offense that was good enough to reach the playoffs.  So signing Moose was a good move, even if the length of the deal and the amount of money paid per catch didn't quite add up.

The only thing curious about this move is the status of Bernard Berrian.  Are the Bears going to franchise him?  If Ron Turner is coming back, re-signing Berrian is now a must.  You can't have Devin Hester be your most experienced receiver on the roster.  If so, next year will make the '04 Bears look like the '89 Niners.

UPDATE: The Bears also decided to release Fred Miller and Darwin Walker.  The Miller release was a no brainer, as he was basically a turnstile all season (though he was productive his first two seasons.)  But at 35, it's not likely that he'll get better any time soon.  As for Walker, his signing was a massive bust.  He signed a 5-year deal at the start of camp, and it seemed he should have been able to step right in for the departed Tank Johnson.  He did anything but.  Injured most of the year, he just didn't get the job done.  Here I wonder if the Bears trainers have done there due diligence, on both sides.  Did they a) check him out fully before giving him the 5-year deal, and b) check him out fully before granting his release?  If it really was just a few nagging injuries, maybe he could have returned to being productive.  He's not that old.  Oh well, it seems the Bears are on a mission to clean house, and that mission includes wiping away every ineffective part of the miserable 2007 Bears.  Miller, Walker, and Moose fit that description perfectly.

Football Withdrawal, Week One

Today marks the First Sunday of the rest of our offseason, and there is absolutely nothing going on.  The Cubs are a few days from pitchers and catchers, which sounds really nice but it's hard to get too worked up when it's two freaking degrees and we're 53 days from real Opening Day.  The Bulls still suck, and are rumored to be shopping Big Ben.  Woo hoo!  Bring in another overpaid bum and call it even.  That'll show Detroit!  All that's left is some minor Bears news and the Pro Bowl.

Yes, I'm actually watching the Pro Bowl, but no, it's not really football.  Not "tackle" football, anyways.  It's more like flag football with a bunch of rough housers.  Still, there's been one reason to watch for us Bears fans.  The Devin Hester Experience.  Any time you can watch Hester, you do it.  He's had a few nice returns today, but his best return was a return he didn't get tackled on.  No, he didn't score a TD, but he had a nice lateral off his back foot (like the Music City Miracle) to a wide open Jason Witten for a big gain. 

As for the minor Bears news, Brian Urlacher had "minor" neck surgery a month ago and we found out about it a few days ago.  The city naturally has its panties in a bunch, and Rick Morrissey is leading the charge.  I might be in the minority in this, but I don't see what the big deal is.  It's clear he was playing hurt this year, but obviously not hurt enough to miss a game.  It required precisely the type of surgery that could wait until the first day of the offseason.  And it did.  But what about Jerry Azumah?  What about Erik Kramer?  They had neck injuries and their careers were over!  If Brian's career is over, yes that would suck but there's not much we can do about it now.  Ever hear the expression "no sense crying over spilled milk"?  All we can do is wait and see how he recovers.  If he doesn't, well, let's jump that hurdle when we come to it.  It's not like the season's on the line and now we lost Brian.  There's seven freaking months till opening day.  Take a powder.

Is New England's Loss Good for the NFL?

The Patriots' loss to the Giants in the Super Bowl the other day might have been a blessing in disguise for the NFL.  I don't think it made a difference in the (stellar) ratings, but from an image standpoint.  A New England win would have brought more attention to SpyGate, and if any of the recent allegations are true, it would be a black eye for the sport. 

Don't get me wrong, I'm sick of hearing about SpyGate.  In fact, I'm sick of hearing the term "SpyGate."  So from here on out, I'll refer to the incident as The Belichick Ultimatum (TBU).  I listened to Senator Arlen Specter's interview on Mike & Mike and I'm convinced that he's simply a) grandstanding to get his name in the news (trying to appeal to voters in Pennsylvania), and b) kowtowing to his biggest campaign contributor, Comcast.  I mean, why does congress care if teams steal signals?  Don't they have bigger things to worry about?

That said, TBU is a big deal for The League.  The NFL investigated the cheating allegations back in September, and they found enough evidence to fine Belichick and New England $750,000 and a first-round draft pick.  That's not exactly small potatoes, there.  The fine was so big because the Jets game wasn't the first incident on record, it was merely the first publicized incident.  Belichick and company were caught taping signals before and received a stern warning from the league.  (Got that?  A stern warning.)  Yet they arrogantly continued to defy the league's order and videotaped Jets coaches on the sidelines in week one.  Roger Goodell was forced to levy the fine.  The penalty is so huge that I'm convinced there was more evidence of cheating than a simple VHS tape.

Enter Matt Walsh, Patriot videographer from 1996 to 2003.  He supposedly has evidence of the team cheating for years.  New England supposedly even taped the Rams final walk-through before Super Bowl XXXVI, a game the heavy underdog Patriots of course won. 

Does videotape of your opponents practice even help you win?  That's not for me to say, but it surely can't hurt (unless the opponent knew they were being taped and slipped in some subterfuge, Greg Brady style.)  It also could very well be the key to the entire Belichick era.  You know, three titles in five years.  I do know that it'll really make you think twice when you hear a losing player say, "it's like they knew what plays we were running." 

Other teams have stolen signals, of course.  It's been happening since the dawn of the NFL 85 years ago.  No one has been as egregious as the Patriots, though, as no other team has warranted such a stiff penalty.  That's what makes them stand out.

Anyways, I guess the point of this post is to say that Patriots losing is a blessing in disguise.  If they had gone 19-0, and tied the sport's most sacred team record, it would have invited a larger microscope into the past cheating allegations.  If any truly incriminating evidence was found, (and the NFL didn't simply squash it), they might be forced to do something far worse to the Patriots.  Like strip titles.  And that would be far worse for the sport, possibly on the level of a strike or the Black Sox scandal.

Besides that, the Patriots going 19-0 would ruin some of the "any given Sunday" mystique that the NFL sells so frequently.  One team going undefeated in 85 years is a lot more special than even two or three teams being able to accomplish the feat.  If teams started going undefeated all the time, it'd be about as special as when a college team does it.  Impressive, yes, but only a NCAA Schwab-like savant can name more than a handful of the dozens of teams that have gone undefeated at the college level.

GEE, MEN!!!!!! Eli and the Giants Shock the Patriots

"I cannot believe what I just saw." - Jack Buck, after Kirk Gibson's walkoff home run off Dennis Eckersley in the 1988 World Series.

The game has been over for over an hour, and I still can't believe it.  Eli Manning and the New York Giants shocked the world and upset the 18-0 Patriots by a score of 17-14 tonight in Super Bowl XLII.  It's quite possibly the biggest upset ever.  Well, not technically the biggest upset from a pure spread standpoint, but in the context of New England's attempt at an 19-0 season, it's a whopper.  Just unbelievable. 

How'd they do it?  In a word, Defense.  As I (not so boldly) predicted, they blitzed the crap out of Tom Brady.  What I didn't expect, though, was for it to work.  Brady was on his back all night.  Brady wasn't bad, and he didn't really do anything to lose the game.  He just didn't make enough plays to win it. 

While the Giants defense won the game, it wouldn't surprise me to see MVP Eli Manning and the Giants go on a run where they win two or three more Super Bowls in the next five years or so.  The guy, despite the mountains of crap he's gotten the last few years in New York and across the country (and from me), played flawless football over these last four games.  Games where it counted most.  He's for real. So much composure in the pocket.  The ability to make something out of nothing.  Escaping the rush on the key pass to David Tyree (who?) was magical.  Incredible accuracy on third downs.  Eli's recent play reminds me of a young Tom Brady back in 2001 when they shocked the Rams to win their first of three Super Bowls.  Young Tom (and modern Eli) weren't always the prettiest in the regular season, but they were flawless in the playoffs.  This seriously might catapult him into the next stratosphere of Quarterbacks.  I can't say enough about the performance of Eli.  I can also honestly say that he has something that Peyton Manning doesn't have.  He's got moxy.  

Peyton is clearly more impressive in the regular season.  He's a hundred times more impressive on the stat sheet as well.  Hell, even his commercials are better.  And while Peyton did earn his ring last year against the Bears, he wasn't the key player on the Colts in that game (despite his MVP award).  The key to that game was Jeff Saturday and the offensive line that simply beat the crap out of the Bears' defensive line.  And of course there was Rex Grossman and the offense's inability to hold/move the football.  (They were only down by 5 in the 4th quarter despite playing like complete garbage!)   When you look at Peyton's career, he has never really been that good in any key playoff (or Bowl!) game. (The one exception being the second half against New England in the 2007 AFC Championship game.)  I guess my point is Peyton Manning is a great regular season QB that has continually choked in the playoffs.  If it wasn't for Rex Grossman and the Bears being so woefully inadequate, we'd still talk about Peyton being a playoff choke artist.  (Just a 70.6 rating in last year's playoffs - the year he won.)  Eli Manning is anything but a choke artist.  He's just a winner, and without him they wouldn't have beaten any of their four opponents this offseason.  Peyton has never come close to carrying his team on his back like Eli just did.  Not in the playoffs.

I read a great line from Jim Rome on Joe Posnanski's blog about Peyton Manning.  Rome basically said "while Peyton Manning never seemed to do anything too tragic, he was at the scene of a lot of accidents."  That perfectly describes how Manning's playoff career has gone (outside of last season.)  And how Tom Brady's night went tonight.  He didn't blow it, but he was there and he didn't win it.

And what of those Patriots?  We should have seen it coming.  While they were winning all their games, they simply weren't that dominant over the last eight weeks.  When Vegas was handicapping games, they were routinely giving New England 14, 17, 20+ points per game.  And they weren't coming close to covering any of them.  Sure, they won.  But they weren't that convincing.  Not like they were earlier in the season.  In a weird way, they were like the Bears last year.  Remember when the Bears were 8-0 and the toast of the NFL?  I do.  Seems like a decade ago.  The Bears, of course, yo-yo'd behind Grossman to three regular season losses (and a complete lack of respect from the national media in the playoffs), but the overall comparison is apt.  Start the season white hot; lose a few key guys to injury (Bears lose Brown and Harris, Pats lose Colvin); finish the season lukewarm but still good enough; win a few lackluster playoff games at home; lose the Super Bowl.  Am I reaching here? 

I do know one thing.  If I was a New England fan, I'd be suicidal.  Seriously, I'd be climbing on my roof right now, ready to jump into a mountain of snow.  Well, not seriously, but a loss like this might seriously prompt me to stop watching sports.  No joke.  The Buckner Game might move down a notch on the list of worst losses in Boston history.  I wonder if Bill Simmons is going to release an emergency 2.1 version of his "levels of losing" column for ESPN. 

The best thing about tonight was that the game was awesome.  The game, as it rarely does, lived up to the hype.  Despite the score being as low as 7-3 for three quarters, it was still an interesting game.  The fourth quarter, though, sent this game to the next level.  So great.  You watched it, so I'll skip out on the recap.  The only negative is when I flipped to ESPN after the game to see Mercury Morris' smiling face gloating over the Giants win.  Who knows how many more years we have to listen to that jackass now?  And the stupid anchor that interviewed Morris congratulated him on the win tonight.  My Lord. 

There was one more negative about tonight that I forgot to mention.  Football season is over.  Six long months till they break out the pads.  I'm going to miss it.  Till next time...